It was just one moment amid the clamor of a second-grade classroom. Just one whispered sign. A voice so small teacher Ruby Dellamano had to bend down and really listen.

But oh, how it was worth the wait.

"I'm getting lost in my book," whispered Rose, 7. She clutched a copy of "Minnie and Moo Go to the Moon" -- a book purchased by the East Palo Alto Kids Foundation -- and beamed.

The 19-year-old nonprofit serves 4,500 prekindergarten students through 12th-graders in the Ravenswood City School District, where teachers otherwise get no money for essentials like classroom libraries, field trips and science materials. The foundation offers $500 grants twice a year to all teachers in the district serving East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park, a region left behind in the wealth of Silicon Valley.

But more is needed and Wish Book readers can help. Each gift of $25 funds classroom supplies; $50 buys books to add to a reading-level collection; $100 funds student tickets for a field trip to a museum.

You can see the impact in any of the classrooms where teachers received help.

Across the hallway from Dellamano at Costaño Elementary School, third-grade teacher Elizabeth Morgan shows off the collections she purchased. Morgan describes "Horrible Harry and the Purple People" and "A Chair for my Mother" as her personal anti-poverty program, a glossy selection of titles with the power to grip each one of her 22 students' interests and reading levels. Teachers here say the alternative -- dated, state-issued textbooks that leave many kids frustrated -- is just not good enough.

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Morgan discovered that six years ago, when she was a 23-year-old, first-time teacher in East Palo Alto. She arrived to find not a single book in her classroom library. "It was a devastating moment," she recalled. "How are you going to teach kids to read if you have no books?"

Ravenswood students have little time to waste. Roughly three-fourths learn English for the first time in school, and 90 percent qualify for subsidized lunches. Many of these students have poorly educated parents who often work two or three jobs, so small miracles are needed at school.

The challenge is compounded by limited classroom resources. Because Ravenswood has virtually no PTAs, parent donations can't backfill sparse district funds and state shortfalls.

So for the past 19 years, the East Palo Alto Kids Foundation has helped make up the difference. Its mission statement maintains that "a one-digit difference in ZIP code shouldn't make a difference in the quality of education a child receives."

Yet just over Highway 101, the fate of geography is hard to ignore. That is what first lured board member Laura Roberts a decade ago. A resident of the comfortable community of Los Altos, Roberts was struck by the disparity between East Palo Alto and her town -- where parents log hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours each year. The roughly $200,000 in PTA donations going to just one Los Altos elementary school matches all the money spent for extras in Ravenswood's 11 schools.

"Those districts that have a wealthier parent base are able to raise more than areas where parents are juggling more than one job or earning minimum wage," Roberts said.

Indeed, Ravenswood literacy coach Lara Burenin, a former classroom teacher, said she and her colleagues start off challenged. "I have friends who work in Palo Alto where the PTA gives new teachers a check at the beginning of each year," Burenin said. "That doesn't happen in East Palo Alto."

But with the foundation's help, about 90 percent of Ravenswood teachers can purchase everything from iPads to geometric cubes.

Charley Scandlyn, who founded the Ravenswood Education Foundation that also serves the East Palo Alto and east Menlo Park schools, called the Kids Foundation a powerful force in "eradicating teacher-resource poverty."

"Those guys are amazing -- they have been so faithful to teachers over the years," Scandlyn said. "They are doing sacred work; they are investing in the lives and souls of the most underserved children in our communities."

Fifth-grade teacher Allison Smith used grant money for a three-day excursion with her classroom to San Gregorio in October. Students milked goats and made queso fresco, dipped in tide pools, took night hikes and slept under tepees. Smith said they braved wasp stings and nervousness but returned to school the following week more confident and trusting.

"The kids loved it, they did so many things they'd never done before," Smith said. Despite living just a half-hour from the beach, "some of them had never seen the ocean."

Readers can help the East Palo Alto Kids Foundation provide micro-grants to teachers. Each gift of $25 funds classroom supplies; $50 buys books to add to a reading-level collection; $100 funds student tickets for a field trip to a museum. Donate to Wish Book at www.mercurynews.info/wishbook or clip the coupon.

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To learn more about East Palo Alto Kids Foundation, go to www.epak.org.